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Topic: wow...how sad... (Read 3725 times)

A trip to introduce a Queens man's family to his father ended in tragedy Friday when four family members were killed in a horrific car accident in North Carolina.

Jamaica dad Wayne Pride-Hicks, 44, perished in the crash with wife, Natalie, 35, as did children Wayne Jr., 10, and Natalia, 3. Three other kids survived.

Pride-Hicks was taking his family on a Memorial Day road trip to visit his biological father, Leroy Rumph, who his wife and five children had never met before.

"He was going to see the father...but that never happened," said his pastor, Bishop Lester Williams of the Community Church of Christ in Jamaica. "He was very excited."

The clan loaded into a minivan for the 21-hour trip to Clayton, Ala., on Thursday night.

They were on Interstate 77 near the town of Elkin, N.C. - about halfway to their destination - when things went horribly wrong around 9 a.m. Friday.

Police believe the father fell asleep and the minivan crossed a 60-foot-wide median, swerved into oncoming traffic and collided with a pickup truck and another vehicle at full speed, North Carolina State Highway Patrol First Sgt. Justin Dodson said. "Elijah was screaming, 'Daddy, Daddy, wake up!' a relative told Williams, referring to one of the three surviving children. "Everybody else was asleep."

"We were looking forward to meeting the family for the first time," said Rumph, 67, the owner of a dry cleaning business in Clayton, Ala. "It was supposed to be a nice weekend. Now, we don't know what we're going to do." Rumph said he gave his son money for the trip to Alabama so they could be at the family gathering.

The surviving children - Elijah, 8; John, 7; and Josiah, 5 - were injured and taken to a hospital but are expected to live.

A husband and wife in the pickup truck were in critical condition at a nearby hospital. The driver of the third car was treated and released Friday.

Pride-Hicks, a dialysis patient who had undergone two unsuccessful kidney transplants, was a deacon at Community Church. His wife, also a deacon at the church, was a home health aide for disabled children on Long Island. The children attended Public School 50 in Queens.

"They're jewels," said Williams, who is the godfather of all five kids.

"In all of my years of pastoring this is the worst tragedy I've ever had to sustain. You never imagine the funeral of a mother, father and children."

Shirley Williams, the pastor's wife, said Natalie - whom she calls Keisha - her husband, and the kids were like their "spiritual family. She was like my daughter. It was like I birthed her. She called me Mother. They were part of us. They can never be replaced. It hurts so bad but I know I'll see them in heaven."

All three of the surviving children are in the custody of North Carolina authorities and a custody hearing is expected as early as Tuesday. Williams said he plans to petition for guardianship with his wife.

"We're going to take care of the children like their parents, like we are their mother and father," said Shirley Williams. "We're gonna love them."